Come join us for a fun and fresh way to discover books that provide students with hope and healing. Our time together will equip you with rich literature that reaches the heart. Some of our topics include: problem-solving, loss, resilience, diversity, addiction, empathy, and many more. You'll leave with book ideas that inspire will your teaching and help heal hearts. Come, explore, and discuss books that provide a bright future for our students.
Learning Center Director, Resilience Team Member, ESSDACK
Carmen Zeisler is the Director of the ESSDACK Learning Centers, an Educational Consultant/Coach, and a co-founding member of the ESSDACK Resilience Team. In Learning Centers, she has been instrumental in leading a Redesign process through Project-Based Learning. In schools, Carmen... Read More →
Thursday November 14, 2019 10:10am - 11:00am CST
Room 180
Create a classroom environment that allows each student the space to feel safe and supported without feeling like you are sacrificing precious instructional time by implementing simple mindfulness strategies centered around trauma responsive practices. Techniques to create a mindful classroom, support students through big feelings and tough transitions, as well as self care tips for teachers.
At Slate Creek Elementary we have been on the journey to becoming Trauma-Informed for three years. In this session, we will share how we are addressing the social-emotional learning needs of our students. Our mission is to empower students to be confident and creative builders of their future and their community. Each day we set the stage for learning so that our students know they are safe, they are loved, and they can handle anything.
What if I told you that we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. This cycle of hope changes lives and is the greatest predictor of a long, healthy, and happy life. In this session we walk through strategies for cultivating, spreading, and borrowing hope.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to lead a gold standard PBL that empowers students to create a safe and calm classroom environment that promotes learning and student voice/student choice.
Our stories have power! In this session I will be sharing how feeling safe, being vulnerable, and sharing my “story” through the help of Circles, Recovery, and the support of champions in my community, has empowered me and changed my life. Not only has it changed my life, it may be just what someone needs to hear, so that they know that there is hope, and they are not alone. I will talk about what has worked in our community, to build relationships, to empower the “unusual” voices, and cultivate healing. I will talk about the importance of authenticity, kindness, and grace when building relationships at home, work, school, and in the community. This session will be about HOPE, HEALING, and RESILIENCE!
This session will focus on shifting organizational thinking towards trauma informed mindsets. Additionally, participants will be introduced to proactive trauma informed practices aimed at improving student connection, regulation and behavior over time.
This presentation is intended to take an honest look at the current ‘system’, our roles as leaders in perpetuating the current system and to challenge all of us to change it. A trauma-informed approach to Human Services, and other systems, is certainly a great foundation, but what if being ‘informed’ is still not good enough? As a system and as leaders, we know so much more, we know so much better – it is time to do better. Mr. Price will discuss strategies and lessons learned to demonstrate the importance of leadership and support from administration in incorporating the culture shift of becoming Trauma-Informed and beyond.
This presentation is intended to give audience members 10 guiding steps to get leaders started on their own Big, Bold, Brave journeys, or validate and support the work they have already started. Mr. Price will discuss strategies and lessons learned to demonstrate the importance of leadership fortitude, self-care, pitfalls to watch for and other invaluable guidance for change leaders.
The Stand Up! Ambassadors from ACCJSH created their slogan, “If You Don't Stand Up! for Something, You Will Fall for Anything”, and have used it as a guiding compass for the past four years to create a culture of Respect, Responsibility, and Readiness (Preparedness). They wanted a clear, concise, and consistent vision for success. The organization started small with a few courageous students who recognized that the school culture was becoming fixed with an atmosphere of disrespect and lack of responsibility. They wanted a culture that allowed students to communicate their needs and empower them to manage their emotions and personal struggles more effectively. Listen to them tell how the Stand Up! Ambassadors serve their school as mentors to new students, lead in social and emotional support, school safety, and are agents for restorative justice where empathy, responsibility, and growth are taught and modeled by students for students and adults.
Come hear how Youth Core Ministries and ESSDACK are breaking the cycle of poverty in rural communities. Core Circles equips those in poverty by empowering them with education and social capital. 21 Adults with 11 Kids have completely left economic poverty and have seen their combined annual income increase by $577,572. 70% of all tracked graduates have stabilized their financial situation. The poverty in our communities can truly be resolved. Join us to learn about this powerful program with actual results and see how people are walking out of financial poverty forever!
Having employability skills is a big deterrent to being in poverty! This session will address the labor market needs for high wage/high demand and moderate wage/high demand jobs and how schools can better position students for these job opportunities through documented acquired technical skills using tools like meaningful industry-recognized certifications.
Join us as we share our journey as a redesign school. We will share with you the discoveries we made when we started looking at Trauma as a real barrier to student engagement, discipline and learning. We will share how through these discoveries we started implementing restorative justice practices and introducing restorative circles into our daily routine. We will share actual practices being done by classroom teachers within their curriculum to foster trauma awareness as well as how classroom color and flexible seating creates a climate that is safe and conducive to high level learning.
Learning Center Director, Resilience Team Member, ESSDACK
Carmen Zeisler is the Director of the ESSDACK Learning Centers, an Educational Consultant/Coach, and a co-founding member of the ESSDACK Resilience Team. In Learning Centers, she has been instrumental in leading a Redesign process through Project-Based Learning. In schools, Carmen... Read More →
Thursday November 14, 2019 1:10pm - 2:00pm CST
Room 180
This presentation is intended to give audience members 10 guiding steps to get leaders started on their own Big, Bold, Brave journeys, or validate and support the work they have already started. Mr. Price will discuss strategies and lessons learned to demonstrate the importance of leadership fortitude, self-care, pitfalls to watch for and other invaluable guidance for change leaders.
Change is HARD and our staff is feeling the stress of change. Come learn (and practice) super fun ways to regularly and intentionally build a foundation of resilience within your staff with games, fun, challenges, and most importantly deeper peer connection. This is an active session with takeaways.
Author, Keynoter, Consultant, Resilience Team Member, ESSDACK
Ginger is a national consultant & keynote speaker with ESSDACK, a non-profit education service center based in Hutchinson Kansas. She inspires and helps all levels of educators figure out the ins and outs of Project/Problem/Passion Based Learning, technology integration, and working... Read More →
Thursday November 14, 2019 2:10pm - 3:00pm CST
Room 180
A majority of disadvantaged students struggle with the literacy demands of the classroom. While relationships are at the heart of learning, teachers can level the academic playing field by intentionally building knowledge to support school achievement. Participants will experience the impact a lack of knowledge creates in comprehension and explore resources for supporting students in their learning.
By the end of this session participants will gain an understanding of how being trauma-informed not only helps the employee but gives the employer a long lasting and loyal workforce.
Meaningful dialogue on social emotional well being can cause people to feel vulnerable, trigger, and worry about others finding out their "secrets." Intentional conversations about how we can lean into our vulnerabilities and triggers will aid us in better supporting our students and living a life we deserve. Teaching, leadership, parenting, and general life living can be difficult; however, we must have the courageous conversations to become the best we can. This session will speak to the experiences of a teacher, administrator, counselor, parent, and life lover - together we will learn how to be present and happy in our lives.
Follow the journey to resilience in Kingman, KS where we have transformed our school and community to be trauma informed. We will share many of the strategies we have implemented in our school as well as things we are doing in the community. Strategies to be shared include: K-8 Families, redesign, seminar, student-led conferences, mentoring for every student, behavior response team, Circles and much more! All of our strategies are tied into our KESA plan and address social/emotional goals. You will leave inspired and with plenty of ideas to take back to your school and implement immediately. Being a trauma informed school can be an overwhelming concept but take a deep breath, come see what we have done, and gain ideas for your own school and community.
Creating a trauma-responsive team is a huge overhaul to the way most schools or organizations do business. Change is messy and often people spin out. Moreover, when staff gets stuck, often times we struggle to know how to help. In this session, we will discuss heart shifts that sustain through a process called a Culture Audit. This specialized process helps to unite, heal and move staff forward - together. Participants will leave with a strategy to shift people from catabolic energy to anabolic energy. A must not miss for organizations or schools implementing trauma-responsive change.
So you've been to a Trauma-Informed Conference. Now what? This presentation will take you step-by-step, showing specific interventions to transform your school into Trauma Responsive and Resilience Focused. Roosevelt Middle School is a Mercury Redesign School that is in their 3rd year of Trauma Responsive practices. With examples from their own experiences, the presenters will show participants how to develop Leadership Committees to help implement Interventions such as: Student of Concern Meetings, Tiered Interventions, Regulation Rooms, Recovery Rooms, Restorative Practices, Brain Breaks, Checks for Regulation and creating your own version Zones of Regulation. Furthermore, resources and strategies will be provided to help train students and staff in your building.
Thursday November 14, 2019 3:10pm - 4:00pm CST
Room 132
Our Student Focus Managers at Brooks are “Jacks of All Trades.” Serving as the first-responders in our building in many circumstances, they are often the eyes and ears of that can help us stop drama and respond to trauma before it gains any momentum. Their work is invaluable to helping Brooks MS become a place where students feel like they belong.
This session will explore pieces of our journey to becoming a trauma responsive school including: how implementing systems such as a calm room and positive behavior supports, engaging students in daily social-emotional learning activities, and building community partnerships, have impacted the culture at Sunset Elementary in Newton, KS.
Building a truama-informed school takes years and truth be told, we never really get there. There is a ton of ambiguity, false starts and flux. All of which can cause a great deal of anxiety in our staff. But the most precious piece of building these systems, is to make sure staff have what they need prior to launch and this come through staff buy-in. In this session, we will unpack the stages of trauma-informed and tools used to help lead staff toward buy-in.
Cottonwood Elementary is excited about their NEW opportunity to strengthen our families through connection, empowerment, and support. Cottonwood Elementary invites families to partner with them in a new program, Family University. Families have an opportunity to enroll in Family University, which meets one night each month during the school year. To help families attend, a meal is served and childcare provided. Parents attend Family Strengthening classes and activities provided for children. The classes offered correlate with one of four themes: Social/Emotional Health and Wellness, Academic Support for Students at Home, Personal Growth and Development, and Parenting Awareness. The VISION of Family University is to empower parents to raise children who are successful in school and in life by becoming full partners with Cottonwood Elementary in their child’s education.
Presenters are Kyle Griffitts, Principal, Tiffany Lowe, Lead Teacher and Tammi Krebaum, 3rd Grade Teacher. Thank you.
Sometimes the most influential person or group of people a kid will ever meet are not in the hallways of the school. They are on the diamonds, the gym floors, the football fields, forensics classroom and the leader of the debate team. We call them "Coach." Coaches have a unique opportunity to build resilience, belonging, and trust. Join me as I share my journey into the awareness of coaching through a trauma-informed lens.
As school leaders, we play a pivotal role in developing a resilient school culture. To achieve this, school leaders must model resilience and engage with staff and students in ways that cultivate resilience. In this session we will explore a variety of ways to ensure we are leading towards resilience.
Many of us are in the trenches, on the front lines, working with kids and families that are hurting. We talk a lot about building resilience for our students and families. But have you stopped and asked how is MY resilience? Resilience and self-care are two different things. Depending on our current season of life, our resilience needs fluctuate. How do I know if I have the needed dose of resilience for my current mission? If I need more, how do I get it? Come hear Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz and Deborah Factor discuss how to create our own personal resilience.
Effective communication doesn't involve a lot of talking. It is active listening coupled with affirmations and asking questions. The strategies learned and practiced in this session will allow the talker to finally "feel heard."
Is your house of worship aware of the burden of trauma many attendees carry on their shoulders? Would your leadership be willing to consider different approaches to reaching their congregations the trauma they deal with? Come join me on a journey as we discover practical ways to make our local houses of worship trauma aware. We can, together, explore steps to make each person, regardless of their past feel welcome and loved. Let us open our minds and our hearts to help heal wounds of the past that can be so devastating.
This engaging workshop will provide an introduction to trauma-informed engagement strategies through discussion of a video called Boston 24/7 with Principal McAfee, which involves a conflict between a high school student, teacher and principal that is all too familiar for anyone working with students.
Restorative Justice is a respected model of school community across the country. What exactly does it look like in practice? Come for an introduction from the leading restorative schools training program in Kansas.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), is essentially acupuncture without needles. This powerful tool can be easily implemented into your classroom, helping both you and your students to stay regulated throughout the day. You will walk away from this session understanding the tool and have a simple game plan for immediate use with your students.
What if I told you that we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. This cycle of hope changes lives and is the greatest predictor of a long, healthy, and happy life. In this session we walk through strategies for cultivating, spreading, and borrowing hope.
Youth and young adults, between ages 14 and 26, with a history of being in the custody of the Secretary of the Department for Children and Families or the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections – Juvenile Services, as well as Tribal Authority courts, may be eligible to receive supports to assist them in their transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency. These youth and young adults likely have a significant history of personal and generational trauma. Supports may include education and assistance around daily life skills, health relationships and self-care, financial and budget management, secondary education, job preparation and search, job training and post-secondary education, case management, etc. Attendees will gain greater understanding of the Independent Living Program components and will learn how to make referrals to the program for youth and their families.
What is the difference between punishment versus discipline in a trauma-informed setting? What happens when we deeply understand this but still get triggered by kids and loved ones and wind up in the "pound of flesh" mentality? Is ISS trauma-informed? Is detention trauma-informed? How do we help brains wired for fight/flight/freeze heal and become wired for cause and effect brains? In this session we will unpack all of this and learn a co-regulation strategy that both buffers and heals.
This engaging workshop will provide an introduction to trauma-informed engagement strategies through discussion of a video called Boston 24/7 with Principal McAfee, which involves a conflict between a high school student, teacher and principal that is all too familiar for anyone working with students.
Community leaders in a small rural community in central Kansas started asking questions about the youth they were serving in after school programs - Why are kids different these days? How do we help them? What are you doing at school that works? Two classroom teachers and a school counselor have been working with community leaders to answer these questions and share strategies that work. In this session you will receive easy to implement strategies that can work across grade levels and in a variety of settings. You will walk away with practical strategies that you can implement tomorrow.
Oh, the joys of the annual Christmas letter! You know, when I take a half a day to write all of the amazing things my family and I have experienced and succeeded at throughout the year. It will include amazing professional photos and will bring joy to all who read it. But what is really going on? How come I am terrified to share that stuff too? What am I hiding from and what does my Cover Story protect me from? What are the costs of the many masks I must maintain throughout my day? My life? How do I become free to share with others the vulnerability and pain that comes from walking this earth? How do I lead though courage and share with others? And on a personal note how do I face what I am hiding from within myself? In this session, we will experience an activity that is designed to lead us toward personal freedom and healing. This session can be emotionally activating and requires participation. This session is about you and about me and how really deep down under the cover story, I am you and you are me and we are one.
How do we begin to make the shift from traditional school practices to trauma responsive schools who build resilience within our students? School redesign paves the way to move schools from traditional practices to true school families! Logan Avenue Elementary staff will share structures and practices that have helped build our school family around resilience and love based approaches. Ideas related to how the redesign principles align with trauma responsive care will be explored as well as an emphasis on how to manage the change over time. Becoming a school focused on raising resilience is a journey, and collaboration with colleagues is key in the success of our work. We are excited to collaborate with your school in the journey!
Participants will leave this workshop with several classroom activities that can help children manage their dysregulated behavior. These are intervention strategies designed for children that struggle with their attention, social interactions, and general self-management. Children that experience hyper-vigilance due to traumatic experiences will benefit from daily doses of these activities. Children who are socially withdrawn or socially reactive will also benefit from daily opportunities to practice self-regulation. These activities are fun for the whole class and would benefit all children. Your presenters have years of experience working with very traumatized children and their social environments including their schools to help children learn better skills of self-management.
This will be a presentation on implementing Zones of Regulation, calm corners (safe spots), Family Nights, and morning meetings in my own classroom. It will include my own experiences and data showing how it positively changed my classroom. I will tell what I learned about implementing these things for the first time and changes that I am making this year. It will include student accounts of why we used zones of regulation and calm corners and what they saw as helpful to them. This program will also show the benefits of building family relationships and having family members be a part of the school environment in more than just academics.
When we're deep in a Fight/Flight/Freeze reaction, we aren't able to make logical, cognitive choices. Caring adults talk about calming brains down with meditation, mindfulness, and other relaxation techniques, but we still have to cognitively choose to begin practicing those. How do we make the leap between reaction and decision? How do we shorten the time it takes to get our brains back online? Enter the vagus nerve. This session will share what the function of the vagus nerve is and how we can use this awareness to shake up the Fight/Flight/Freeze reaction while it's in process.
Author, Keynoter, Consultant, Resilience Team Member, ESSDACK
Ginger is a national consultant & keynote speaker with ESSDACK, a non-profit education service center based in Hutchinson Kansas. She inspires and helps all levels of educators figure out the ins and outs of Project/Problem/Passion Based Learning, technology integration, and working... Read More →
Friday November 15, 2019 2:10pm - 3:00pm CST
Room 132
